The sun shone and there was a gaiety and sparkle in the air which seemed to promise well for the new era of fashion and prosperity for which the little seaside town, after many vicissitudes5, was making its gallant6 bid.
Royale-les-Eaux, which lies near the mouth of the Somme before the flat coast-line soars up from the beaches of southern Picardy to the Brittany cliffs which run on to Le Havre, had experienced much the same fortunes as Trouville.
Royale (without the 'Eaux') also started as a small fishing village and its rise to fame as a fashionable watering-place during the Second Empire was as meteoric8 as that of Trouville. But as Deauville killed Trouville, so, after a long period of decline, did Le Touquet kill Royale.
At the turn of the century, when things were going badly for the little seaside town and when the fashion was to combine pleasure with a 'cure', a natural spring in the hills behind Royale was discovered to contain enough diluted9 sulphur to have a beneficent effect on the liver. Since all French people suffer from liver complaints, Royale quickly became 'Royale-les-Eaux', and 'Eau Royale', in a torpedo-shaped bottle, grafted10 itself demurely11 on to the tail of the mineral-water lists in hotels and restaurant cars.
It did not long withstand the powerful combines of Vichy and Perrier and Vittel. There came a series of lawsuits12, a number of people lost a lot of money and very soon its sale was again entirely13 local. Royale fell back on the takings from the French and English families during the summer, on its fishing-fleet in winter and on the crumbs14 which fell to its elegantly dilapidated Casino from the table at Le Touquet.
But there was something splendid about the Negresco baroque of the Casino Royale, a strong whiff of Victorian elegance15 and luxury, and in 1950 Royale caught the fancy of a syndicate in Paris which disposed of large funds belonging to a group of expatriate Vichyites.
Brighton had been revived since the war, and Nice. Nostalgia16 for more spacious17, golden times might be a source of revenue.
The Casino was repainted in its original white and gilt18 and the rooms decorated in the palest grey with wine-red carpets and curtains. Vast Chandeliers were suspended from the ceilings. The gardens were spruced and the fountains played again and the two main hotels, the Splendide and the Hermitage, were prinked and furbished and restaffed.
Even the small town and the vieux-port managed to fix welcoming smiles across their ravaged19 faces, and the main street became gay with the vitrines of great Paris jewellers and couturiers, tempted20 down for a butterfly season by rent-free sites and lavish21 promises.
Then the Mahomet Ali Syndicate was cajoled into starting a high game in the Casino and the Société des Bains de Mer de Royale felt that now at last Le Touquet would have to yield up some of the treasure stolen over the years from its parent plage.
Against the background of this luminous22 and sparkling stage Bond stood in the sunshine and felt his mission to be incongruous and remote and his dark profession an affront23 to his fellow actors.
He shrugged24 away the momentary25 feeling of unease and walked round the back of his hotel and down the ramp26 to the garage. Before his rendezvous27 at the Hermitage he decided28 to take his car down the coast road and have a quick look at Le Chiffre's villa7 and then drive back by the inland road until it crossed the route nationale to Paris.
Bond's car was his only personal hobby. One of the last of the 4?-litre Bentleys with the supercharger by Amherst Villiers, he had bought it almost new in 1933 and had kept it in careful storage through the war. It was still serviced every year and, in London, a former Bentley mechanic, who worked in a garage near Bond's Chelsea flat, tended it with jealous care. Bond drove it hard and well and with an almost sensual pleasure. It was a battleship-gray convertible29 coupe, which really did convert, and it was capable of touring at ninety with thirty miles an hour in reserve.
Bond eased the car out of the garage and up the ramp and soon the loitering drum-beat of the two-inch exhaust was echoing down the tree-lined boulevard, through the crowded main street of the little town, and off through the sand dunes30 to the south.
An hour later, Bond walked into the Hermitage bar and chose a table near one of the broad windows.
The room was sumptuous31 with those over-masculine trappings which, together with briar pipes and wire-haired terriers, spell luxury in France. Everything was brass-studded leather and polished mahogany. The curtains and carpets were in royal blue. The waiters wore striped waistcoats and green baize aprons32. Bond ordered an Americano and examined the sprinkling of over-dressed customers, mostly from Paris he guessed, who sat talking with focus and vivacity33, creating that theatrically34 clubbable atmosphere of l'heure de l'apéritif
The men were drinking inexhaustible quarter-bottles of champagne35, the women dry martinis.
'Moi, j'adore le "Dry",' a bright-faced girl at the next table said to her companion, too neat in his unseasonable tweeds, who gazed at her with moist brown eyes over the top of an expensive shooting-stick from Hermes, 'fait avec du Gordon's, bien entendu.'
'D'accord, Daisy. Mais tu sais, un zeste de citron . . .'
Bond's eye was caught by the tall figure of Mathis on the pavement outside, his face turned in animation36 to a darkhaired girl in grey. His arm was linked in hers, high up above the elbow, and yet there was a lack of intimacy37 in their appearance, an ironical38 chill in the girl's profile, which made them seem two separate people rather than a couple. Bond waited for them to come through the street door into the bar, but for appearances' sake continued to stare out of the window at the passers-by.
'But surely it is Monsieur Bond?' Mathis's voice behind him was full of surprised delight. Bond, appropriately flustered39, rose to his feet. 'Can it be that you are alone? Are you awaiting someone? May I present my colleague, Mademoiselle Lynd? My dear, this is the gentleman from Jamaica with whom I had the pleasure of doing business this morning.'
Bond inclined himself with a reserved friendliness40. 'It would be a great pleasure,' he addressed himself to the girl. 'I am alone. Would you both care to join me?' He pulled out a chair and while they sat down he beckoned41 to a waiter and despite Mathis's expostulations insisted on ordering the drinks - a fine à l'eau for Mathis and a bacardi for the girl.
Mathis and Bond exchanged cheerful talk about the fine weather and the prospects43 of a revival44 in the fortunes of Royale-les-Eaux. The girl sat silent. She accepted one of Bond's cigarettes, examined it and then smoked it appreciatively and without affectation, drawing the smoke deeply into her lungs with a little sigh and then exhaling45 it casually46 through her lips and nostrils47. Her movements were economical and precise with no trace of self-consciousness.
Bond felt her presence strongly. While he and Mathis talked, he turned from time to time towards her, politely including her in the conversation, but adding up the impressions recorded by each glance.
Her hair was very black and she wore it cut square and low on the nape of the neck, framing her face to below the clear and beautiful line of her jaw48. Although it was heavy and moved with the movements of her head, she did not constantly pat it back into place, but let it alone. Her eyes were wide apart and deep blue and they gazed candidly49 back at Bond with a touch of ironical disinterest which, to his annoyance50, he found he would like to shatter, roughly. Her skin was lightly sun-tanned and bore no trace of makeup51 except on her mouth which was wide and sensual. Her bare arms and hands had a quality of repose52 and the general impression of restraint in her appearance and movements was carried even to her fingernails which were unpainted and cut short. Round her neck she wore a plain gold chain of wide flat links and on the fourth finger of the right hand a broad topaz ring. Her medium-length dress was of grey soie sauvage with a square-cut bodice, lasciviously53 tight across her fine breasts. The skirt was closely pleated and flowered down from a narrow, but not a thin, waist. She wore a three-inch, handstitched black belt. A handstitched black sabretache rested on the chair beside her, together with a wide cart-wheel hat of gold straw, its crown encircled by a thin black velvet54 ribbon which tied at the back in a short bow. Her shoes were square-toed of plain black leather.
Bond was excited by her beauty and intrigued55 by her composure. The prospect42 of working with her stimulated56 him. At the same time he felt a vague disquiet57. On an impulse he touched wood.
Mathis had noticed Bond's preoccupation. After a time he rose.
'Forgive me,' he said to the girl, 'while I telephone to the Dubernes. I must arrange my rendezvous for dinner tonight. Are you sure you won't mind being left to your own devices this evening?'
She shook her head.
Bond took the cue and, as Mathis crossed the room to the telephone booth beside the bar, he said: 'If you are going to be alone tonight, would you care to have dinner with me?'
She smiled with the first hint of conspiracy58 she had shown. 'I would like to very much,' she said, 'and then perhaps you would chaperon me to the Casino where Monsieur Mathis tells me you are very much at home. Perhaps I will bring you luck.'
With Mathis gone, her attitude towards him showed a sudden warmth. She seemed to acknowledge that they were a team and, as they discussed the time and place of their meeting, Bond realized that it would be quite easy after all to plan the details of his project with her. He felt that after all she was interested and excited by her role and that she would work willingly with him. He had imagined many hurdles59 before establishing a rapport60, but now he felt he could get straight down to professional details. He was quite honest to himself about the hypocrisy61 of his attitude towards her. As a woman, he wanted to sleep with her but only when the job had been done.
When Mathis came back to the table Bond called for his bill. He explained that he was expected back at his hotel to have lunch with friends. When for a moment he held her hand in his he felt a warmth of affection and understanding pass between them that would have seemed impossible half an hour earlier.
The girl's eyes followed him out on to the boulevard.
Mathis moved his chair close to hers and said softly: 'That is a very good friend of mine. I am glad you have met each other. I can already feel the ice-floes on the two rivers breaking up.' He smiled, 'I don't think Bond has ever been melted. It will be a new experience for him. And for you.'
She did not answer him directly.
'He is very good-looking. He reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless in his . . .'
The sentence was never finished. Suddenly a few feet away the entire plate-glass window shivered into confetti. The blast of a terrific explosion, very near, hit them so that they were rocked back in their chairs. There was an instant of silence. Some objects pattered down on to the pavement outside. Bottles slowly toppled off the shelves behind the bar. Then there were screams and a stampede for the door.
'Stay there,' said Mathis.
He kicked back his chair and hurtled through the empty window-frame on to the pavement.
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1
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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interspersed
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| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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3
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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4
melodrama
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| n.音乐剧；情节剧 | |
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5
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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6
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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meteoric
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| adj.流星的，转瞬即逝的，突然的 | |
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diluted
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| 无力的，冲淡的 | |
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10
grafted
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| 移植( graft的过去式和过去分词 )； 嫁接； 使（思想、制度等）成为（…的一部份）； 植根 | |
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11
demurely
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| adv.装成端庄地，认真地 | |
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12
lawsuits
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| n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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13
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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14
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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15
elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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16
nostalgia
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| n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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18
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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19
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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20
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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21
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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22
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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23
affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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24
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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26
ramp
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| n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速 | |
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27
rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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28
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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29
convertible
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| adj.可改变的，可交换，同意义的；n.有活动摺篷的汽车 | |
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30
dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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31
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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32
aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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33
vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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34
theatrically
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| adv.戏剧化地 | |
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35
champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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36
animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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37
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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38
ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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39
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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40
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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41
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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43
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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44
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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45
exhaling
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的现在分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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46
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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47
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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48
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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49
candidly
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| adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地 | |
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50
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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51
makeup
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| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
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52
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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53
lasciviously
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54
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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55
intrigued
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| adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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56
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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57
disquiet
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| n.担心，焦虑 | |
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58
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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59
hurdles
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| n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛 | |
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60
rapport
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| n.和睦，意见一致 | |
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61
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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